Even if you have a relatively small website, it is likely that you eventually have to deal with hackers. One of the most common methods of hacking is the brute force attack – here hackers will cycle through numbers and letters to try to crack your password. It has happened to Joomla users in recent memory, so it is important to be prepared as much as possible.

The reason that these brute force attacks were successful encompasses a number of different factors. First, you have unlimited login attempts with the Joomla platform. This means that brute force hackers can continue to try until they gain access or are detected. While there is not much the average user can do about this, you can use different tactics to make your site more secure against these hackers.

1. Don’t use the admin usernameMany times, the most common usernames are targeted such as admin, webmaster, administrator, test, etc. These all are very common usernames and that’s why, it makes sense to avoid using them. Don’t worry, from the backend, you can select a different name that’s publicly visible. This means that your username can be “amazingme” and you can choose a different name to be displayed on the front-end.2. Use a strong passwordUse a strong password and avoid common passwords such as fghj, 2221, 12345, your name, etc. The brute force attack targets all the common passwords first, and that’s why you should use a strong password that is a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters like #@*^. For example; a strong password would be something like [email protected]^^#. Also, never use the same password at two different places.

3. Limit login attemptsIt is highly recommended that you limit login attempts. This can be done by using a security plugin like Better Joomla Security, or by using Limit Login Attempts plugin.

4. Update core and add-ons to improve Joomla security Since the most common successful attacks are due to known vulnerabilities in outdated Joomla versions and add-ons, one of the most important tasks for anyone responsible for Joomla security is to ensure that all the software remains up to date.Thus, one of the most important features that has been added to Joomla is the new Joomla Update Manager which can be used to easily update many extensions, as well as the Joomla Update component to update Joomla itself.

5. Backup oftenTake regular backup of your complete Joomla site. Some people don’t give importance to backup, and unfortunately, they realize the value of backup only after a disaster strikes. Also don’t rely much when your host says that they regularly perform backup, because if they don’t, then it will create more problems.

If you've changed menu items or aliases on your website, the old links will still be indexed on Google until it gets back around to checking them again. This means that if someone is linked to your website in Google and it gives them an old link, they will get a 404 error and won't be able to view anything.

This is where redirecting comes in. We need to redirect all the old links to the new ones to ensure a viewer still gets to the correct page. This can be done individually but can take hours - this is where we can utilise a batch redirect to speed up our process. This basically enables you to take any links with a certain alias and point it to a new alias.

### @package Joomla# @copyright Copyright (C) 2005 - 2013 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved.# @license GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt##### READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE!## The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems# with some server configurations. It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already# be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in# your .htaccess file. If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to# beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's. If they work,# it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here.#### Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.Options+FollowSymLinks## Mod_rewrite in use.RewriteEngineOn## Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits.# If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below# This attempts to block the most common type of exploit `attempts` to Joomla!## Block out any script trying to base64_encode data within the URL.RewriteCond%{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode[^(]*\([^)]*\) [OR]# Block out any script that includes a <script> tag in URL.RewriteCond%{QUERY_STRING}(<|%3C)([^s]*s)+cript.*(>|%3E)[NC,OR]# Block out any script trying to set a PHP GLOBALS variable via URL.RewriteCond%{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2})[OR]# Block out any script trying to modify a _REQUEST variable via URL.RewriteCond%{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2})# Return 403 Forbidden header and show the content of the root homepageRewriteRule.* index.php [F]### End - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits.## Begin - Custom redirects## If you need to redirect some pages, or set a canonical non-www to# www redirect (or vice versa), place that code here. Ensure those# redirects use the correct RewriteRule syntax and the [R=301,L] flags.### End - Custom redirects### Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL# is not directly related to physical file paths.# Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root).### RewriteBase /## Begin - Joomla! core SEF Section.#RewriteRule.*-[E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]## If the requested path and file is not /index.php and the request# has not already been internally rewritten to the index.php scriptRewriteCond%{REQUEST_URI}!^/index\.php
# and the request is for something within the component folder,# or for the site root, or for an extensionless URL, or the# requested URL ends with one of the listed extensionsRewriteCond%{REQUEST_URI}/component/|(/[^.]*|\.(php|html?|feed|pdf|vcf|raw))$ [NC]# and the requested path and file doesn't directly match a physical fileRewriteCond%{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-f
# and the requested path and file doesn't directly match a physical folderRewriteCond%{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-d
# internally rewrite the request to the index.php scriptRewriteRule.* index.php [L]### End - Joomla! core SEF Section.

To add our redirects, we must ensure we put them before the Joomla SEF rewrites which is generally the last part of the file. See below how you can rewrite a URL.

This basically tells anything that has blog/blog-category-1 in it to redirect to the URL blog/blog-category-2. so the url withblog/blog-category-1/sub-category/item-to-view will automatically update toblog/blog-category-2/sub-category/item-to-view

Below is where we need to add this into our htaccess file - just before the SEF rewrites.

######PTP SEO Redirections -- BEGIN#301 Redirect Entire Old directoriesRewriteRule blog/blog-category-1(.*)$ blog/blog-category-2$1 [R,L]######PTP SEO Redirections -- END# RewriteBase /## Begin - Joomla! core SEF Section.#RewriteRule.*-[E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]## If the requested path and file is not /index.php and the request# has not already been internally rewritten to the index.php scriptRewriteCond%{REQUEST_URI}!^/index\.php
# and the request is for something within the component folder,# or for the site root, or for an extensionless URL, or the# requested URL ends with one of the listed extensionsRewriteCond%{REQUEST_URI}/component/|(/[^.]*|\.(php|html?|feed|pdf|vcf|raw))$ [NC]# and the requested path and file doesn't directly match a physical fileRewriteCond%{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-f
# and the requested path and file doesn't directly match a physical folderRewriteCond%{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-d
# internally rewrite the request to the index.php scriptRewriteRule.* index.php [L]### End - Joomla! core SEF Section.

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